'Black Madam' charged in death of woman who received silicone butt injections

Padge Windslowe, 42, a Philadelphia woman who calls herself the "Black Madam," has been charged with third-degree murder in the death of Claudia Aderotimi, who died days after getting silicone injections in her buttocks.

Police say Aderotimi, 20, flew from London to Philadelphia with three friends to get the injections. She received the injections in Feb. 7, 2011, at a Hampton Inn in Southwest Philadelphia, according to police. Aderotimi complained of chest pain and difficulty breathing following the procedure and died a few days later at a Delaware County Hospital.

One of Aderotimi's friends, Theresa Gyamfi, said she had received a similar injection from the same woman in November 2010.

Gyamfi identified Padge Windslowe as the woman who injected both of them.

Windslowe was free for more than a year between Aderotimi's death and her February 2012 arrest at what police called a "pumping party" at a Philadelphia home. That arrest involved assault and related charges in a separate incident that authorities said left a client with severe lung problems from silicone that entered her bloodstream.

The woman whose injuries led to Windslowe's initial arrest said she spent two weeks in the hospital with severe respiratory problems, The Associated Press reported. A doctor who testified at a hearing in May said silicone particles had migrated to the woman's lungs.

Windslowe also bills herself as a musical artist who uses "Black Madam" as a stage name, the AP said.

Illegal injections using such substances as liquid silicone, paraffin and petroleum jelly have been used to enlarge women's breasts, hips and buttocks in other cases. Although the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the FDA don't keep data on injuries or deaths caused by illicit cosmetic injections, cases have been reported across the country and beyond.

In other high-profile cases:

Solange Magnano, a model and former Miss Argentina, died in Buenos Aires in 2009 from complications after having cosmetic injections in her buttocks.

Last Nov. 18, a Miami Gardens, Fla., transgender woman, Oneal Ron Morris, 30, was arrested on charges of practicing medicine without a license after police said she injected a patient's rear with a substance consisting of cement, "Fix a Flat," mineral oil and super glue in an illegal cosmetic surgery procedure. She pleaded not guilty.

On July 12, Kimberly Smedley, 46, of Atlanta, Ga., was sentenced in a Baltimore federal court to three years in prison for injecting commercial silicone into customers' buttocks for nearly nine years in hotel rooms in Baltimore, Washington D.C., Detroit, New York City, Philadelphia and elsewhere. She made at least $1.3 million from her nationwide practice, federal prosecutors said. She was convicted on a charge of introducing and delivering into interstate commerce an adulterated and misbranded device. Prosecutors said she used silicone stored in an unlabeled water jug, medical syringes and super glue with cotton balls to keep the silicone from leaking out.